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Central Bank architect to build €25m Dublin block

IRELAND’S best-known architect has designed his first city-centre building in more than 20 years. Sam Stephenson has drawn up a €25m eight-storey office and retail block made of glass and granite for Tara Street, off Dublin’s quays.

The design has all the hallmarks of the controversial architect’s early work, featuring expanses of glass and large uninterrupted areas of stone wall.

The building will extend to more than 51,000 sq ft, and its financiers, Coolbrook Developments, hope to have it completed by the end of next year.

Two local pubs lodged objections to the development, one citing its “protected structure” status and the other stating that the building was a threat to the “historic culture” of the area once known as Shoe Lane. Neither was upheld.

Over the past four decades, Stephenson’s landmark modern buildings have drawn accolades and insults in equal measure. The Central Bank, a 1970s high-rise in Dublin’s